The present invention relates to optical communications, in general, and more particularly to apparatus and method of providing an optical connection between printed circuit (PC) boards for optical communication there-between.
Greater demands for increased bandwidth are being made on data communication between electrical data processing units or subunits, like printed circuit (PC) boards, for example. Communication rates of tens of gigabits per second are exemplary of such demands. These demands can not be met by traditional metal electrical connections, like those found on mother boards and back plane connections, for example. One solution to meet these demands is to create optical communication channels for board-to-board communication using light coupling between an array of light emitters of one PC board and an array of light detectors of another PC board.
A drawback to this solution is that a mechanical light coupling interconnection between parallel PC boards is no simple task. Thus, a simple and automatic interconnection of the light coupling between PC boards is desirable to render optical communication between PC boards a commercially viable reality. The present invention intends to satisfy this desire through suitable interconnection apparatus.